Dr M, the great man of irony

Of late, Malaysia’s longest-serving prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad appears to have been persuaded to become the voice of unhappy Malaysians, demanding answers for a list of alleged indiscretions by our current rulers.

Dr Mahathir’s very open disgust for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s leadership has aroused renewed support from the likes of Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali to local celebrity Datuk Siti Nurhaliza Taruddin and even from former law minister-turned-opposition politician Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.

Instead of fading into oblivion, Dr Mahathir is now hailed as the saviour of Malaysia’s declining fortunes – a knight, riding in on his steed of judgement.

From early April, he began his attacks on Najib, demanding that the embattled prime minister answers a list of questions which Dr Mahathir claimed cast great doubts over his character and ability to lead.

Dr Mahathir also claimed that the billions lost in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal were unprecedented. He admitted that there was also “loss of the country’s funds” during his reign, he countered that people knew where and how their money was being lost, which he said, made it all right.

A few days later, he again treated us to a rare insight into his paradoxical mind when he criticised the police’s detention of five newsmen from The Edge Media Group as being heavy-handed, and warned that such abuse of power could turn Malaysia into “a police state”.

If Dr Mahathir has proven anything in this past two weeks of attacks against Najib, it would be that he is a master of irony.

Our former leader is a lot of things, but protector of civil liberties, he is not. Under his leadership from 1981 to 2003, newspapers were shut down and hundreds of people were arrested under the Internal Security Act, out of which, a vast majority were opposition politicians.

If ever Malaysia was in threat of being a labelled a police state, it is safe to say that it would have been during Dr Mahathir’s premiership.

The 1980’s spawned Malaysia’s mega financial scandals, with more than RM10 billion lost in the Perwaja Steel scandal, another RM10 billion in the collapse of Bank Bumiputera Finance and countless other allegations of shady deals between well-connected corporate and public figures.

The fact is that the scourge of money politics both in Umno and the federal government machinery today took root and flourished during Dr Mahathir’s rule, and everybody but Dr Mahathir himself seems to acknowledge that.

He must strongly believe that Malaysians’ lust for a hero – no matter how tainted – will glaze over his 22-year rule, which has been rife with allegations of corruption and repression of political freedom.

However, he has not made to answer to those scandals and now made worse by him taking the moral high ground in his tirade against Najib.

Malaysians must continue to demand that the current leadership answers pertinent questions of mismanagement of funds and corruption.

Najib has to do much more than give a badly-scripted television interview to appease voters.

But we must not be so desperate to rid Najib that we are ready to put our trust in a leader with a track record as shrewd, ruthless and tainted as Dr Mahathir.

Dr Mahathir or Najib, they must all be made to answer to their misdemeanours.

Dr Mahathir will need to do more than make mere mention of his role in some of our nation’s biggest financial and political black marks.

He must be made to explain 22 years’ worth of alleged corrupt dealings, before he can stand up and point fingers at his troubled former protégé.

And until he does, he must not be allowed to hoodwink Malaysians into believing he is our God-sent redeemer. – April 19, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.